Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Author: John Scalzo
Rumor: Project Gotham Racing 5 in the works for Xbox 720 at Lucid Games
I have a feeling this Xbox 720 “logo” is going to get a lot of work over the next few months.
STFU and Play has posted a rumor that claims Lucid Games (a development house made up of former Bizarre Creations and Criterion staff members) is hard at work on Project Gotham Racing 5 for the Xbox 720/Durango.
Bizarre Creations created the PGR series back on the original Xbox and a new entry has been rumored to be in development ever since Activision scooped up Bizarre in 2007.
Interestingly enough, a search of Lucid Games’ website reveals a mystery project known as “Sky Light” that carries the tagline “Road Opens 2013.”
This lines up nicely with STFU and Play’s assertion that Project Gotham Racing 5 will be a launch title for the Xbox 720/Durango, which is rumored to launch in Fall 2013.
J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell tease possible game/movie collaboration
Star Wars Episode VII director J.J. Abrams and Valve CEO Gabe Newell spent the morning addressing the crowd at the 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit. Their talk, “Storytelling Across Platforms,” kicked off the conference and was heavily promoted before the four-day gathering of developers began.
Apparently, there was a good reason for that.
Abrams and Newell’s panel concluded a few minutes ago and they dropped a massive bombshell before they left. Are you ready? Abrams announced that he wants to partner with Valve on a video game and Newell announced that he wants work with Abrams (and his Bad Robot production company) on movies based on Half-Life and Portal:
Abrams: There’s an idea we [at Bad Robot] have for a game that we’d like to work with Valve on.
Newell: We’re going to find out if there’s a way we can work with you on a Portal and Half-Life movie.
Oh. My. God.
[Source: Kotaku]
XBLA Today: Special Forces: Team X
Atari is in the midst of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, but they still added the Zombie Studios-developed Special Forces: Team X to the Xbox Live Arcade today.
Special Forces: Team X is a third person team-based shooter with cartoony graphics (they remind me of Archer, actually) and “over 100 map variations.” Special Forces: Team X has been priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) and is available to download now:
Special Forces: Team X (STX) is a team-centric third Person cover based shooter. The game features a unique map selection system, with the ability to shape the battlefield by selecting individual environmental pieces, resulting in over 100 map variations. STX supports asymmetric game play with 2-4 teams and five frenetic game modes. Cooperative play between team members is richly rewarded. Customize your skills, weapons and character to tailor your tactics and performance in battle. STX brings you the brutality of war as you take on the role of an elite soldier in a Special Forces squad.
More Xbox 720 rumors: Blu-ray discs, no used games, Kinect V2 compatible
As Sony steams towards their February 20 announcement of the “Future of PlayStation,” new rumors have emerged about Microsoft’s next-generation offering, the Xbox 720/Durango.
According to Edge, an anonymous tipster has revealed a laundry list of details concerning Microsoft’s next system:
- The system’s internals will include an AMD eight-core x64 1.6GHz CPU, a D3D11.x 800MHz graphics card, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and a hard drive of unspecified size.
- Games will ship on 50GB Blu-ray discs.
- Each game will also ship with an activation code, locking out used game sales without some kind of re-authorization code.
The tipster also said that Microsoft plans to launch a “new, more reliably responsive” Kinect sensor alongside the Xbox 720/Durango.
PSN Today: Dead Space 3, Sly Cooper 4, Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2, more
You’re not scared of this week’s PlayStation Store update are you? Maybe you should be as EA has added Dead Space 3 to the PS3 Full Games section.
If battling Necromorphs on an ice planet isn’t your thing, there’s always the cartoony capers of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and Bentley’s Hackpack. The fourth Sly Cooper game is available for the PS3 and Vita in a Cross-Buy “buy one, get both” edition and as a cheaper Vita-only release. Bentley’s Hackpack is a bite-sized collection of hacking minigames that is also a part of the Cross-Buy promotion.
Also available this week is Namco Bandai’s brawler Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 and a downloadable version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
Hit the jump for more information on all of this week’s new releases and check out the PlayStation Blog for a complete list of this week’s new game add-ons. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged Dead Space 3, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Star Wars Pinball strikes back on digital platforms this month
Zen Studios will be bringing three Star Wars-themed pinball tables to a download service near you this month. Star Wars Pinball will be available as a standalone app on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Android Store. It’ll also be released as downloadable content for Pinball FX 2 (Xbox Live Arcade, Windows 8), Zen Pinball 2 (PlayStation Network, Vita, Mac App Store), and Zen Pinball (Apple App Store, Google Play).
“It’s been over 30 years since Star Wars, videogames, and solid state pinball all burst onto the entertainment scene, and their popularity endures today. We’re excited to be combining all three for the very first time,” said Neil Sorens, Zen Studios’ Creative Director. “Our designers are huge Star Wars fans, and you can expect every detail in every table to reflect their passion for the Star Wars universe.”
The three tables will be based on three of the biggest names in Star Wars history: The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Screenshots and more details can be found at the game’s official site, StarWarsPinball.com.
Approve of this, I do.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Star Wars Pinball, Zen Pinball 2
XCOM shooter still on track for 2013/2014 release
XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released to near universal critical acclaim last year. But you may remember that Take-Two also announced a first person shooter set in the XCOM universe (simply titled XCOM) at E3 2010. Repeatedly delayed, you’re forgiven if you don’t remember it.
But within the paragraphs of their quarterly financial report, Take-Two confirmed that XCOM is still in development for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 and that it’s still on track for a “fiscal year 2014” release.
Take-Two’s 2014 fiscal year runs from April 1, 2013 through March 31, 2014. Even though it’s possible the game could be released as early as this Spring, I’d guess that a late 2013/early 2014 release is much more likely.
Skylanders Swap Force brings customizable figures to the franchise
Skylanders Giants is less than four months old and Activision is already ready to announce the next game in the series. Skylanders Swap Force will make its worldwide debut this weekend at the 2013 Toy Fair. Taking up residence in booth 3061, Activision will unveil Swap Force’s 16 new customizable characters at the Javits Center in New York City.
Here’s some of the new features that the kiddies can look forward to in Skylanders Swap Force:
Swap Force builds upon the success of the franchise’s signature gameplay with an all-new innovative play pattern — swapability — that gives kids more choice than ever before by letting them swap the top and bottom halves of the toys to create their own characters. The game lets Portal Masters reconfigure 16 Swap Force characters into more than 250 unique combinations. Kids can mix and match characters’ powers and moves, and then bring them to life in the game. Fans of the franchise also can play Skylanders Swap Force with their entire collection of characters from both Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders Giants, now with the added capability of jumping.
Skylanders Swap Force is in development at Vicarious Visions and will likely be released this Fall for every platform imaginable.